A few rows in front of me at the Western game was one of those guys who exasperatedly yells out a piece of football wisdom he's picked up over the years whenever he is affronted by its lack. His wisdom was "turn around for the ball," which he yelled at Herron a couple times and the cornerbacks a couple times.

I was with him, but then a funny thing happened: no one could complete a fly route on these mediocre corners. Here's everything I've got marked fly/go/fade (which I am totally inconsistent about) from the first two weeks:

Opp

Ln

Dn

Ds

O Form

D Form

Rush

Play

Player

Yards

WMU

M25

2

12

Shotgun 3-wide

Nickel press

6

Fly

Floyd

Inc

Demens's delayed blitz gets him in free(pressure +1, RPS +1) but I wonder if he didn't time it quite right. Another step and Carder is seriously harried. As it is he gets off an accurate deep ball on Floyd's guy, who's got a step. Floyd runs his ass off, starts tugging jersey early, and... I'll be damned. He strips the ball loose(+2, cover +1). That was textbook. Gibson -1.

WMU

M19

1

10

Shotgun 3-wide

Nickel Eff It

7

Fly

Avery

Inc

Sends: house. Obviously something gets through(pressure +1); Carder chucks it deep to a fly route Avery(+2, cover +1) has step for step. He's right in the WR's chest as he goes up for the ball. WR leaps, then reaches out and low in an attempt to stab the ball. Avery rakes it out. Gibson -2. Demens(+1) leveled Carder, BTW.

Opp

Ln

Dn

Ds

O Form

D Form

Rush

Play

Player

Yards

ND

O36

2

10

Shotgun 4-wide

Nickel even

5

Fade

Woolfolk

Inc

Hawthorne as a standup DE-ish thing and Ryan as an MLB. Blitz telegraphed? I don't remember this play. Survey says... yes. Ryan blitzes, Hawthorne drops into coverage, ND picks it up. Rees wants Floyd on a fade covered by Woolfolk. Woolfolk(+2) is step for step and uses his club to knock the ball away as it arrives. Robinson(+0.5) was there to whack him, too. (Cover +1)

ND

O44

1

10

Shotgun trips

Nickel even

4

Fade

Avery

Inc (Pen 15)

No question about this. Avery shoves Floyd OOB on a very catchable fade (-2, cover -1).

ND

O43

2

26

Shotgun 3-wide

Okie

5

Fade

Floyd

26

Floyd on Floyd action. Floyd(+1, cover +1) has excellent, blanketing coverage on Floyd but the back shoulder throw is perfect and his hand is a half-second late. Floyd stabs a foot down and Floyd can't do much other than ride him out of bounds. Sometimes you just have to tip your hat. This is one of those times. That is hard. That is why Floyd (not our Floyd) is going to be rich in about nine months.

ND

M21

2

10

Shotgun 4-wide

Okie

5

Fade

Van Bergen

Inc

They back out the MLBs this time and send the DL plus the OLBs. RVB(+1, pressure +2, RPS +2) is instantly past the G assigned to him because of a poor pickup; Rees chucks a ball off his back foot that's not catchable. Eifert gives it a go, though.

ND

M16

1

10

Shotgun 3-wide

Nickel even

5

Fade

Floyd

Inc

Floyd(+2, cover +1) in press here and stays step-for-step with Floyd on the fade, breaking it up as it arrives. Fade is not well thrown, which helps.

ND

M22

2

2

Shotgun 3-wide

Nickel even

5

Fade

Avery

Inc (Pen 15)

Kovacs rolls up; check. They take advantage of the man to man to take a shot at the endzone. Avery(+1, cover +1) is right in the WR's face as the ball comes in; it's low and to the outside and Avery can't do anything about the futile one-handed stab the WR makes, but it's a futile one-handed stab. Avery is hit with a terrible PI flag (refs -1)

ND

O39

1

10

Shotgun empty

Nickel even

5

Fade

Floyd

Inc (Pen 15)

Hawthorne(+1, pressure +1) gets a free run at Rees so he chucks it to Floyd, Floyd(-2, cover -2) is beaten instantly and starts yanking the jersey in a desperate bid to not be an instant goat.

ND

M29

2

5

Shotgun 4-wide

Okie

6

Fade

--

Inc

Miscommunication between QB and receiver means pass is nowhere near anyone. Blitz was just getting home.

Your score excluding the miscommunication: two legit pass interference penalties, one horsecrap call, one 26-yard completion to Michael Floyd, five incompletions. What's more, in each case save one pressure-forced incompletion and the two legit PI calls the corners are 1) there and 2) making a play on the ball.

That's seven out of nine legitimately good plays from the DBs on accurate deep balls. On all but one—the legit Avery PI—the corners were on an island as Mattison sent at least five. No bracket here. The Avery PI was a zone, the rest of it was man coverage, much of it press.

Michigan's press-ish coverage success in fly routes in 2011 including a game against Michael Floyd: 88%. The exception was virtually unstoppable and still drew a plus from the ol' softie who does these things. That's miraculous in last year's context. Hell, it's miraculous in a lot of contexts. How has this happened?

Michigan Press Coverage As Explained By Underpants Gnomes IN STEREO

STEP 1: Line up a yard off the LOS with inside leverage.

STEP 2: When receiver releases outside, turn hips and run with him real fast.

STEP 3: NOBODY CARES WHEN RECEIVER LOOKS FOR BALL

STEP 4: NOBODY CARES!

STEP 5: When receiver reaches up for ball, punch him in the face.

OPTIONAL: grab his jersey a bit and get away with it OPTIONAL: scream SHORYUKEN.

Videos

Floyd on Floyd action:

Avery on Jones action:

Interesting Items

Why it works. That whole find-the-ball thing is hard. Todd Howard was coached to do it but always did it late, whipping his head around just in time to see the ball zing by. When you do that you've given yourself an even tougher job than the WR, who's been tracking the thing since it left the QB's hand. Lots can go wrong there. He can slow up and you bowl him over. He can slow up on a deliberately underthrown ball. He can slow, then extend a la Manningham. Or you can just not find the ball quickly enough.

In contrast, the shoryuken technique seems pretty easy. Focus on the WR's chest. When his arms go up, get your arms/head/body in between those arms. Faceguard the guy for bonus points. Net result: incompletion or spectacular Prothro-style catch. Mostly the former.

It's hard to get lost because you're following the WR's chest everywhere, and the only bomb you can't defend is the one that's just past your outstretched arms. That's hard to throw and hard to catch.

Gibson –8. Two games in I am a believer in Tony Gibson Was The Worst. These are the same guys as last year making these plays. Notre Dame clearly identified these fades as a weakness to exploit, especially in press coverage, but got little out of them. If you discount the Avery PI, on the eight fade attempts against press coverage opponents got 41 yards, just over five yards per attempt. Even if you count the Avery PI that hops up to 6.9 YPA—still worse than the NCAA average of 7.2 YPA.

Compare that to last year, when even doing something right meant you did something wrong:

Small sample size disclaimers apply, but Tony Gibson? The worst.

Downsides and low upsides. So this style of coverage seems pretty effective, obviously. There are two major downsides to my eyes:

Low upside. Since you are never looking for the ball you are highly unlikely to intercept it.

A tendency to pick up PI calls. Refs give you more leeway when you are looking for the ball. Bumping a guy with your back to the ball is always going to be an issue, but you can get away with "look and lean," as Spielman calls it.

I'm a little concerned about our corners' speed when asked to run real fast. Against Western Floyd gave up a yard or two of separation to a MAC receiver on his successful fly defense; in the second clip above it kind of feels like on a longer route Jones will pull away from Avery. Those are hypotheticals, though, and whatever limitations of Floyd and Avery have do not currently include a tendency to get burned deep.

This allows cool stuff. Michigan can press with one high safety because of this, which opens up the blitz possibilities that produce big plays. While the coverage style precludes big plays from the cornerbacks it allows them from other parts of the defense, and those big plays are bigger. What would you rather have, an interception 30 yards downfield or the quarterback fumbling the ball?

What I like about seeing this is the warm blanket feeling that Mattison and staff are the real deal. It seems that Mattison is trully working with the talent he is given. He has a secondary that is just not althletic enough to do all the finer things, so they are just making sure he can put them on an island in man coverage, knowing that they can get the incompletion.

It also seems to me that Mattison also knows that he cannot get pressure with his front four (yet???). It seems like he has improved the secondary play enough that can put guys on islands and start doing all kinds of mad scientist blitzes to get pressure. It seems like he is tinkering with the guys he has to find packages that work.

Even with the small one and three quarters game sample size that Mattison is the real deal. I am wicked excited for what this defense can become in the next few years.

As the season progresses, we'll see more safety and cornerback play that will substantiate or not substantiate the piece--I suspect that Brian is right, by the way--but in either case, Brian has provided a more accurate way to evaluate what we see. And that's good.

Assuming Brian is correct in also seeing a big improvement from last year, the picture may not be as clear, since some of our DBs now have more game experience, and are playing in a different base scheme (not the 3-5-5). Again, I suspect Brian is correct that we are seeing improvement resulting from the new staff.

I think Brian is completely correct in pointing to cronyism as a likely contributor to poor DB play under Rodriguez. It probably contributed to Schaeffer's firing and to Gerg's miserable 3-5-5. The same complaint was raised by Brian, I believe, about Carr's offense under Mike DeBord.

Cronyism is probably inevitable on any coaching staff to some degree. Let's hope that if / when it surfaces under Coach Hoke, it does not become flagrant.

Ummm...both of the coaches are Hoke "cronies." What I like about our co-ordinators, other than their competence, is that both Borges and Mattison are at the tail end of their careers. Michigan is not a stepping stone for either. There is a real chance for everyone to settle in an build something lasting and great.

This seems to me like an intermediate step. Good receivers playing a cornerback who's playing the body are going to start using subtle fakes to get the defender jumping in the wrong spot. Jerry Rice was the master at that -- you had to look for the ball because he'd go one way then adjust at the last minute. Markus Knight did a lot of that too.

I think it has to do with a lack of ball skills. Im a junior in high school and I have started Varstiy sense my freshman year. My coach has always teaches us look for the ball. Not to toot my own horn or anything but I have Elite ball skills and excellent speed. Im positive thats what it is. Ive noticed alot of guys on my team who dont look back for the ball they lack ball skills and coach tells them to use there body to shield the reciever but dont get touchy when doing so.

I must admit I was yelling for the CB's to turn during the game but only when they were in the end zone. It seemed as though they could use the side or back of the end zone as a defender to turn around and look for the ball. The receiver could not really run away at that point and it only gives the refs another excuse to call a penalty on the CB. I realize this is a hard trait to teach or master, but it seems more likely for a CB to turn in the end zone when the play is slowing down and is becoming a jump ball situation.

As a corner, I was taught, when playing man under, to reroute and go step for step with the receiver and look at his eyes. If he looks up for a touch pass, there is no way in hell you can turn around and hope to break up the pass. However, if his eyes are focused at mid-level, then you have to turn around as fast as possible when his eyes get big.

The difference when you play zone is that you have to stay over the receiver and pass off to the safety after the first cut, thereby preventing a perfectly placed back-shoulder throw/catch.

Playing against Tommy Rees whose mind has nothing but "FLOYDFLOYDFLOYD", you can be safe to assume that he's going to chuck some touch passes over to Floyd and so the corners did a great job of defending. However, it was troubling to see seam routes and hitch routes being completed by Western on man under coverage as well. Hopefully we can hold EMU to less than 50 yards passing.

Oh, and with the RPS system, you should give an RPS -1 for calling man up against a slants play because any good quarterback WILL complete a slant against man up.

Brian, you noted that 7 out of 9 plays were well defensed, but then wrote that was an 88 percent success rate.

Seven out of nine is 77.7 percent, and 88.8 percent is eight out of nine. I'm not so sure that 77.7 percent is all that great.

Second, maybe the one PI call was bogus, but were any of the non-PI incompletions possible PI calls? If you're going to throw out the bad call that was called against the DBs maybe you should evaluate whether there was illegal contact on the incompletions and throw those plays away too (if there was illegal contact).